UOCAVA Deadline Approaches

The April 2, 2024, Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary is quickly approaching!

With a federal office on the ballot for the April 2, 2024 election, there’s a different timeline for getting absentee ballots out to some voters. Absentee ballots for military, permanent overseas, and temporarily overseas voters (also known as UOCAVA voters) are required to be sent no later than February 15, 2024. Because this deadline falls before the February 20, 2024, Spring Primary, UOCAVA voters will receive an “A” ballot containing only the Presidential Preference contest before military and temporary overseas voters receive a full “B” ballot containing the Presidential Preference contest plus the rest of the state, county, municipal, and/or school district elections. Permanent overseas voters are only eligible to vote in federal elections, so they will not receive a B ballot containing state and local elections.

For more information on issuing, accepting, and organizing your “A” and “B” ballots, please read this clerk communication.

Commission Approves Updated Manuals

Uniform Instructions, Other Admin Rules Also Reviewed

At its quarterly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 8, the Wisconsin Elections Commission approved revised Election Day and Election Administration manuals.

Prior to Commission approval, WEC staff reviewed the existing manuals to identify outdated information and add any new information required for clerks.

The updated manuals include two new sections titled “Spoiling and Replacement Ballots,” which covers a municipal clerk’s ability to send a new absentee ballot to a voter when the ballot is spoiled or damaged, and “Voter Correction of Incomplete Absentee Certificate Envelopes,” which covers a clerk’s ability to return absentee ballots to voters when there are defects on the certificate envelopes.

The revised manuals include guidance updates or process changes that were discussed in various clerk communications issued over the past few years. The revised manuals now consolidate the various pieces of guidance in one resource.

At the quarterly meeting, the Commission also reviewed the status and drafts of several proposed Administrative Rules, including proposed rules relating to clerk training requirements, emergency polling place plans, mandatory use of uniform instructions, and challenge procedures for nomination papers. The proposed rules will continue to move through the rule-making process and are not yet final.

The Commission also received a report on the agency’s polling place accessibility review efforts for the past two years and learned about updates to the documents that reviewers use when visiting polling places to assure proper accessibility.

The Commission approved ballot status for the Green Party.

Catch up on Commission decisions and other activity from the Feb. 8 quarterly meeting here.

Countdown to Feb. 20

Believe it or not, the first election of the busy 2024 election cycle – the Feb. 20 Spring Primary – is now less than two weeks away! The Spring Primary will not have a statewide contest, but instead will feature municipal, county, and/or state-level candidates competing in local jurisdictions for placement on the April 2, 2024, spring ballot.

As a reminder, clerks who are running a primary on Feb. 20 may conduct their public test of electronic voting equipment beginning on Feb. 10. Public notice should be given at least 48 hours before the testing begins. The public test of electronic voting equipment is a great opportunity for members of your community to see firsthand one way in which election officials secure the voting system. Beyond the public notice, you might consider also sending a news release so that members of the media may attend and publicize this important process.

Finally, to help those of you with a Spring Primary to share important election-related dates and deadlines with voters in your community, the WEC Public Information Office plans to publish a 2024 Spring Primary social media calendar in the coming days. The resource will provide suggested social media posts for you to use on your Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and other social media pages. The Public Information Office will also plan on publishing another social media calendar ahead of the April 2 Spring Election.

Make Sure Voters Can Find You!

Check your staff info on MyVote

Maintaining your contact information and staff list in WisVote is crucial for ensuring that voters can contact your office and that only active election officials have access to this sensitive database. You can easily verify that your municipality's clerk contact information is correct by using MyVote. Click on the "Find My Clerk" link in the footer and enter a local address.

Also, as a matter of routine, please keep the WEC Helpdesk aware of any incoming staff members who need WisVote access, or outgoing staff members whose access should be removed, and the dates to change their access.

Please contact the WEC Helpdesk if you have any questions.

New Election Center Brewing In Dane County

Facility to better protect election workers and equipment

This past November, the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted to purchase a defunct 45,000-square-foot Ale Asylum craft brewery facility, near the Dane County Regional Airport, and transform it into a climate-controlled election center with state-of the-art-security.

The project, which will cost around $20 million, will eventually house the Dane County clerk staff and city of Madison election staff.

“The building is in excellent condition,” said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell. “It’s a great location, it checks all the boxes … This happens to be a [former] brewery.”

McDonell had hoped that the conversion into an election center would be much further along by the November 2024 General Election.

“There is some disappointment, we’re not going to be able to use it as much as I was hoping,” said McDonell. He said he wished the facility could have been partially ready for secure equipment storage; however, a project architect and a construction company have yet to be hired.

Even without renovation, McDonell says some storage will be available this year for things like carts and other less-critical election-related equipment. He estimates it will be at least 18 months before the facility will be ready for county staff to move all clerk operations to the site.

“You don’t want to be moving and rushing around, that’s when you’re most likely to make a mistake,” said McDonell.

When finished, McDonell says the election center will be the first of its kind in Wisconsin and he anticipates interest from other Wisconsin clerks who may wish to visit and consider similar election centers in their locations, although likely on a smaller scale.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” said McDonell as he reflected back on a visit he took to Florida’s Hillsborough County Election Center while he was at a conference near Tampa. “It was shocking, how bad ours was in comparison.”

McDonell returned to Dane County and took his observations to county administrators and public works staff members. “Oh, I get it now,” was the collective response McDonell said he received.

The current clerk’s office is on the first floor of Madison’s multi-story, 1950s-era City County Building (CCB), situated a block from the State Capitol. It houses many operations, including a couple of floors of jail space and the Juvenile Reception Center. There have been water leaks, and sewage leaks, McDonell said.

“So yeah, being below hundreds of toilets and showers is not ideal obviously, and just having so many multiple entrances and exits.”

Following McDonell’s Florida findings, an election security review task force was formed. The group visited the Hillsborough facility as well as similar election centers in Maricopa County, Ariz., and Cook County, Ill. The review committee concluded staff in both the Madison and Dane County clerks’ offices were working in a building with minimal access control and security, and that a dedicated elections facility was needed to protect people and equipment.

When the project is complete, nothing will change in terms of how voting takes place, but McDonell said Dane County’s municipal clerks will benefit by no longer having to secure voting equipment or move it for maintenance. Recounts will be held at the election center, and there will be space for regional training sessions.

McDonell said protecting servers, other election equipment, and ballots will be paramount, but feels the election center’s biggest plus will be the establishment of a safe work environment.

“And that’s really an unfortunate result of our current times,” he said. “We need to make sure we are not losing good people and that they feel safe, if we are going to maintain people’s trust in the system and ensure the integrity of elections.”

Scott McDonell, a Democrat, was first elected Dane County Clerk in 2013 after serving as a Dane County supervisor for 17 years. He and his wife Megin live in downtown Madison and have two children.

McDonell grew up in Bethesda, Md., where he played varsity soccer. He also played soccer at UW-Madison, where he graduated with a political science degree in 1995, and successfully ran for a seat on the Dane County Board shortly thereafter.

Upcoming Dates & Deadlines

Upcoming Events

• February 28, 2024 – Webinar: 2024 April & Presidential Preference Election
• May 1, 2024 – Webinar: Spring Elections Wrap-Up

Upcoming Commission Meetings

• June 10, 2024: Ballot Access Meeting
• June 27, 2024: Quarterly Meeting

Upcoming Elections

• February 20, 2024 – Spring Primary (where applicable)
• April 2, 2024 – Spring Election & Presidential Preference Primary
• August 13, 2024 – Primary Election
• November 5, 2024 – General Election

Recent Clerk Communications

• February 9, 2024 – Required Use of New Absentee Envelopes and Instructions
• February 9, 2024 – WEC Clerk Communications Relating to Absentee Ballot Certificate Witness Addresses
• January 25, 2024 – Municipal Clerk Training Report Posted for 2022-2023 Term
• January 23, 2024 – Upcoming Absentee Deadlines – April 2, 2024, Spring Election and Presidential Preference Vote
• January 19, 2024 – Certification of Referendum Question and Type A Notice of Referendum for the April 2, 2024 Spring Election
• January 5, 2024 – Municipal Clerk Training Report Posted for 2022-2023 Term
• December 27, 2023 – Commission Approves Revised Uniform Absentee Ballot Instructions